Chess Pieces
by martinique
Summary: [Fin]Naruto moves through the ranks, through life, coming closer to an understanding of how everything works. Light shounen ai. NaruSasu, SasuNaru, NaruSaku.


**Arise**

**Author**: Martinique/Starapple  
**Pairings**: NaruSasu, NaruSaku, SasuNaru  
**Ratings**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: subtle references to sex.  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine, alas. 

**.Pawn**

He walks on air, floating, unaware that forces unseen push him around, guide him to the front. The front of the line where he buffets a storm. He's a tool in their hands, smooth, armed only with second-hand knowledge. He's not lived enough years, and yet he walks with confidence, stepping forward, going where commanded with little thought of tomorrow.

**.Castle**

Beyond all expectations he is still there, still able to fight even though he's lost so much. Konoha rings on his tongue. Sasuke on his mind. He's a rock, a corner-stone, supported on three sides, one open to the front. This time he can see, but he only travels in two directions because he doesn't believe in making sacrifices.

**.Knight**

He's older, full of experience, he's trusted now. He can see further a-field, knows with the sway of the ocean where Sasuke might be, where he has been. Knows by the shake of the earth the rate at which he breathes, when he moves, the sigh of the earth as he shifts. He's learnt that he has to make choices, so he always looks for the third option, the one hidden between the sharp turn of the road, the one just to the left.

**.Bishop**

Battles, bitterly-won, have shaped him, focused him. He doesn't bother waiting for permission, he moves, shifting and shimmering, falling into the forefront of battle and disappearing to reappear behind.

He lost Sakura. He honours her memory with a dark band around his arm, a band with a pink petal like the ones the flowers he used to grow on his windowsill had. Until he moved, and forgot to water them. So they died.

He grew new ones, but he never found himself looking at them for hours, admiring the depth of colour in the changing sunlight.

He mourns her passing.

He sees Sasuke, but he doesn't understand the black bandage, and he cannot see pink anyway, always red. Sasuke doesn't mourn her passing like he does. He finds he doesn't care for much, but he cares about others, cares to see others keep going.

**.Queen**

One day, hiding out in the depths of the grass, playing their game of hide-and-seek as he has come to know it, Sasuke discovers what the earth looks like when seen without a filter. Even earth looks brown when it's in your eyes.

He's still not quite there yet though, there is still a way to go. He's learnt to move, he's learnt to see all around him in a way which still eludes Neji. He sees.

He's learnt to make sacrifices, choices that pain him.

**.King**

He's unprotected, left unsure in the scattered ranks. Gathers, rolls, unfurls – spreading to cover the blanks. He sees everything, hears on the tender breath of the wind Sasuke's pulse. He's still in his prime, a master of every move, still surprising those that come upon him.

He moves carefully now, watchful of traps and guided doom.

He doesn't wear the black armband anymore. He doesn't grow flowers. At the altar of his memories he lays down incense.

**.Checkmate**

He's alone, surrounded by friends. He sees nothing, he hears nothing. All he hears is the sudden blank, a void in his sensing which causes tears to threaten. He hasn't cried since he buried Sakura.

This is harder, he feels that he's disappeared without a trace, without the freshest memory of a goodbye to hand. Being unable to run a ghost hand through black strands. He mourns their passing, this fresh wound in his side which drains his strength.

He falls down at the last hurdle, and it isn't because he didn't see it, or didn't hear it because he has mastered these things.

He has nothing left to live for, so he takes the first route offered, a sacrifice to safeguard the village, more importantly to keep alive memory of their exploits. Shouts in the street accompany his fall.

He is proof of strength, of determination and the ultimate folly of love across banks too wide to cross. He is proof that the greatest will fall for those they love, to be with those they love.

* * *

**AN**: I'm not dead! I survived exam hell! Alas, now I work, I have less time to do anything. But I am writing the final chapter of The Little Things, I'm not going to abandon it. Ahem, Yes I May Have An Obssession With Chess. This was meant to be Chess PWP, because I find that so unbelievably hot... but alas, it switched on me again.


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